The background to the Irish Adspend study

Overview of the Adspend study

The IAB has measured the size of the digital advertising market in the Ireland in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) since 1997.

Irish media owners submit digital advertising revenue figures confidentially to PwC who then analyse the submissions and produce aggregated data that shows the size of the Irish digital advertising market. Any gaps in the data are filled by the work of the Digital Adspend Advisory Board, which includes the major agency groups, and provides estimated figures for any major media owners that do not submit figures directly to the study.

In addition to figures for the total market, the results show the value of digital advertising by type of advertisement – e.g. display, search and classified, advertising format – e.g. banners, pre-roll video and content / native distribution and advertiser sector – e.g. consumer goods, finance and retail.

Results are released twice a year – in the autumn for the first half of the year (e.g October 2015 for H1 2015) and in the spring for the full year (e.g. April 2016 for Full Year 2015).

Currently, in February 2016, we are in the process of gathering the data for the whole of 2015.

Irish study specifics:

• Various Irish leading publishers participate in the study, many of whom represent multiple websites. Other participants include sales houses and advertising networks.

• Participating publishers are selected on the basis of traffic data and market knowledge. We estimate that our study accounts for 90% of online adspend. Reported figures are not adjusted to account for other organisations that have not participated. Participation is on a voluntary basis.

• Total advertising revenue is reported on a gross basis (i.e. including agency commission).

• Adspend revenue is drawn up on the basis of actual figures provided by study participants. All data was provided to PwC on a confidential basis. The data is prepared by PwC based on the figures provided by participants, which have not been verified or audited by PwC.

• Google, Twitter and Facebook do not break out their earnings from Irish advertisers. Instead PwC in conjunction with IAB created an independent estimate of their revenue from Irish advertisers, by extrapolating from spend data provided directly by a representative sample of their clients.

• RTÉ do not submit data to the IAB PwC Adspend Study, RTÉ’s digital adspend as reported in RTÉ’s most recent annual report is included in the study.